The 2020 Chicago International Online Music Competition and Festival is thrilled to announce the prizewinners of its annual competition! This year, we received a staggering number of applications from more than 400 musicians in 22 countries.  

We would like to thank each person who applied to the international competition as well as those who took part in our online festival. We would also like to thank our distinguished panel of judges who unanimously agreed that the level of the competition was extremely high, by any standard. We are so grateful to our main sponsor, Mr. James P. Zakoura of ROK Inc., with funding support for our jury and prize money. 

And, the winners are:

GRAND PRIZES DIVISION I—Professional Division

1st Grand Prize—Eva Gevorgyan (Russia/Armenia)

2nd Grand Prize—Dmytro Choni (Ukraine/Austria)

3rd Grand Prize—Fabio Romano (Italy/Germany) Tied with Arthur Wang (Canada)

4th Place—Sven Bauer (Germany)

5th Place—Song Hyeon Kim (South Korea)

6th Place—Oleksandr Leonov (Ukraine)

SPECIAL PRIZES

Best performance of a work by Chopin—Eva Gevorgyan

Best Performance of a work by Beethoven—Fabio Romano

FINALISTS

Polina Sasko (Ukraine/Austria)

Aaron Kurz (US)

Alexandra Segal (Ukraine/Israel)

Jerry Chang (US)

Katherine Benson (US)

Tianxiang Ni (China)

Jen-Hao Yeh (R.O.C Taiwan)

GRAND PRIZES DIVISION II—Amateur Division

1st Prize—Trio Primavera (US): Jan Vargas Nedvetsky / Esme Arias-Kim / Yerin Yang 

Tied with String Quartet (US): Isabella Brown/ Katya Moeller/ Zechariah Mo/ Brandon Cheng

2nd Prize—Not Awarded

3rd Prize—Brian Lin (US)

Prize Winners of Each Age Group
Division I—Professional Category
Solo Division

Young Musician II

1st Dali Meng—Piano (US/China)

2nd Charissa Ooi—Piano (Singapore)

3rd Isabella Xue—Piano (US)

Honorable Mention: Thannapas Luanpitpong—Piano (Thailand)

Young Musician III

1st Kai Rong Toby Tan —Piano (Singapore/Indonesia)

2nd Yih Yee Chong—Piano (Malaysia /US)

3rd Matthew Chang—Piano (US)

1st Yuehu Zhou —Oboe (China)

Young Artist I

1st Jerry Chang—Piano (US)

2nd Weetiwat Siriwattanakorn—Piano (Thailand)

3rd Quang Vo Minh—Piano (Vietnam)

Young Artist II

1st Tianxiang Ni—Piano (China)

2nd Solomon Ge—Piano (US)

3rd Not Awarded

1st Isabella Brown—Violin (US)

2nd Katya Moeller—Violin (US)

Concert Artist

1st Polina Sasko—Piano (Ukraine/Austria)

2nd Aaron Kurz —Piano (US)

3rd Alexandra Segal—(Ukraine / Israel)

Honorable Mention: Katherine Benson—Piano (US)

Jen-Hao Yeh—Piano (R.O.C. Taiwan)

3rd Jieru Ma—Percussion (China)

1st Hyerin Helen Kang—Violin (South Korea/US)

2nd Xuanzhen Zhang—Violin (China)

Division II—Amateur Category
Solo Division

Young Musician I

1st Wilson Liu—Piano (US)

2nd Panitcha Daomukda —Piano (Thailand)

3rd Emma Xia—Piano (US)

Honorable Mention: Nathasia Djong—Piano (Indonesia)

1st Hongyuan Cai—Percussion (China)

Young Musician II

1st Angelina Nguyen—Piano (US)

2nd Evangeline Zou—Piano (US)

3rd Joseph J. Yoon—Piano (US)

Special Award for Harp: Ioan Theodor Blejan (Romania)

1st Yi-Ting Lim—Cello (Singapore)

2nd Amelie HuiQi See—Cello (Singapore)

1st Vicki Huiting Luo—Violin (Canada/China)

2nd Alyssa Ooi—Violin (Singapore)

Young Musician III

1st Sophia Suwiryo—Piano (US)

2nd Brayden Cheang—Piano (US)

3rd Jacob Rockower—Piano (US)

Honorable Mention: Kenneth Chen—Piano (Canada)

Gabunia Foundation Special Award—Emmie Guo (US)

Special Award for Folk Music: Thanita Sedtinwong (Thailand) Tied with Nantha

Sedtinwong (Thailand)

1st Faith Ong (Singapore) Tied with Jane Callista Saweango (Indonesia)—Vocal

1st Jason Yan—Cello (US)

1st Renee Tu—Violin (US/China)

1st Yuze Cai—Percussion (China)

Young Artist I

1st Brian Lin—Piano (US)

2nd Michelle Harianto—Piano (Singapore/Indonesia)

3rd Crystal Dahlan—Piano (Singapore/Indonesia)

Honorable Mention: Pinn Mahasaranond—Piano (Thailand)

Trinity Jantarach—Piano (Thailand)

Young Artist II

1st Anxin Lily Yang—Piano (US)

2nd Annie Tang—Piano (US)

3rd Emily Wang—Piano (US)

Honorable Mention: Nancy Zheng—Piano (US)

Madelyn Dwyer—Piano (US)

1st Minkyoung Kim—Flute (South Korea) tied with Daisy Noton—Flute (United Kingdom)

Concert Artist

1st David Kotler—Piano (US)

2nd Nathaniel Zhang—Piano (US)

3rd Yi-Fang Wu—Piano (Taiwan)

Honorable Mention: Julien Bedon—Piano (France/Japan)

Chamber Music Division—Division II

Young Artist Category

1st Breshears String Quartet (US): Dustin Breshears/ Valery Breshears/ Colin Breshears/ Starla Breshears

Youth Artist Category

1st Sarah Girges and Avah Girges—Piano Duo (US)

Concert Artist Category

1st Yi-Fang Wu/ Strauss Shi (US/Taiwan)